Films & Food

An obvious pair…films and food. I always watch a movie at the theatre with popcorn in hand. It just feels right. But I do think that hot dogs and pizza and hamburgers is going a little over board though, when you’re at the movie theatre. But at home, well, feel free to devour whatever you please.

FilmsWeLike sent me a copy of their latest Mid-August Lunch (a film by Gianni Di Gregorio) to review. It’s a lovely little film about food, friends, family, and love. The food… Italian. The friends… elderly women. The family…a middle aged man and his mama. And the love… is what happens when you combine all three. So naturally, I decided I had to watch this move over an inspired homemade hearty meal of my own. Vegan lasagna! I’m sure Italians would kill me for putting vegan and lasagna in the same sentence. So be it.

Mid-August Lunch and my Vegan Lasagna made the perfect Sunday afternoon. However, I only wish I had a bottle of wine to go with them. After watching the star of the film, Gianni, casually down glass of wine after glass of wine – making alcoholism look so luxurious and appealing – I too had the urge to get wasted in the hot afternoon sun. But alas, no wine and no hot sun over here!

I love film, but I’m no critic. But what I enjoyed most about Mid-August Lunch was watching the characters really take pleasure in food and wine throughout the movie. I related even more when one of the characters in the movie couldn’t eat cheese! Well too bad she didn’t have my recipe for this Vegan Lasagna.

Ingredients:
(of course, the veggies and noodles can be changed to your liking)
brown rice lasagna
zucchini, shredded carrot, chopped spinach
vegan parmesan

For Tomato Sauce:
1 can whole tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
fresh basil & parsley
fresh or dried oregano
salt & pepper

Saute onion in some olive oil until soft. Add garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. Add tomato paste and herbs, then the whole tomatoes (with juice from can). I blended the whole tomatoes first, but that’s optional. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes or up to 1 hour.

For Bechamel (White Sauce):
1/2 cup silken tofu
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp. tahini
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp corn starch

Put all these ingredients in a blender and combine.

For Tofu Ricotta:
1 block extra firm tofu, crumbled
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
fresh basil
salt & pepper

Crumble the tofu into small pieces (resembling ricotta cheese) with your hands. Add in the remaining ingredients and combine.

It takes some prep time to get all 3 of these components ready so you could make both sauces and the tofu ricotta ahead of time. Saute zucchini, shredded carrot and spinach if you’re using fresh spinach in a pan with a bit of olive oil. You can use frozen spinach, just make sure you thaw and drain out the water first. You’ll need to pre-boil the brown rice lasagna according to the package or you can save time by using ready to bake white lasagna. Assemble your lasagna in a greased baking dish. Lasagna can be assembled however you want really, but here’s what I did. Pour some tomato sauce to coat the bottom of the dish first, then layer noodles, tofu ricotta, spinach, some white sauce, some more tomato sauce. Then noodles, tofu ricotta, a layer of the zucchini and carrots, remaining white sauce, some more tomato sauce, noodles, and then remaining tomato sauce. I topped it with my pre-made vegan parmesan which is always in the fridge (ground raw cashews, nutritional yeast, celtic sea salt). Bake at 400 F covered with foil for 40 minutes. Then a few minutes under the broiler to brown the top.

Thanks to Troy at FWL (www.filmswelike.com) for sending over the film and inspiring a hot for food recipe!

Eggplant Parm

I made an exciting new vegan recipe. First, a HUGE shout out to SusanV at FatFree Vegan Kitchen for her amazing creations… she is a huge inspiration and I’ve managed to feed all my cheesy cravings thanks to her re-inventions of classic meals. Her Eggplant Parmesan is exactly like the “real” thing. Now eggplant’s aren’t really my fave food, in fact they’re not really even on my radar. I think people assume they are a vegetarians staple – usually part of a grilled veggie medley – and while they might have health properties that I’m not aware of, in my experience they’ve just been more of a pain in the ass then they’re worth.

This was worth it though. Also the cheese sauce component of the recipe will become a staple for other things I make in future… like a vegan lasagna!

My only mod is with the Vegan Parmesan Cheese. To make a real good replicate takes no time at all. Just whirl raw cashews, nutritional yeast, and sea salt together in a food processor. Make lots so you can keep it stored in the fridge to use for any meal, like pasta, salad etc.

Greens

Well, I meant to post this on St. Patty’s Day … oops, it’s now 14 minutes into the day after! Anyway, if you follow hot for food you’ve noticed there’s not a whole lot of greens and salads on here. That’s because there’s no sugar or chocolate in salads. No, just kidding! I do eat my veggies and lots of salad, it’s just I eat them because I should and I haven’t put the time or effort into getting fancy or creative enough to post entries about them. So when I do, you know it’s gotta be good!

I was inspired by a bottle of mango nectar and broccolini. I had yet to try broccolini until now…move over regular old broccoli. BORING! Here’s how it all went down.

I made a Mango Vinaigrette with the mango nectar combined lime juice, dijon, vegetable oil, a drop of agave nectar, and S & P. I soaked the broccolini in it for a minute and seared it quickly on my trustee George Foreman Grill! It’s Grillin’ Time… now that the sun is out – I live in a condo, so this is as good as it gets. And with this, I created a Mango Spinach Broccolini Salad. The spinach, thinly sliced red pepper, and mango chunks were tossed in the vinaigrette, and the warm grilled broccolini was rested on top, along with some salty roasted peanuts. This accompanied by grilled spicy peanut tofu steaks was exceptionally tasty! Here’s how to make an  easy peezy spicy peanut sauce that you will want to drink… if that wasn’t so unacceptable… or put on everything you eat from here on out!

Spicy Peanut Sauce
3 tbsp smooth 100% natural peanut butter
5 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp lime or lemon juice
1 tsp garlic chilli sauce

Combine all these ingredients in a bowl and nuke in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften the peanut butter and be able to stir this all together easily. I marinated my tofu steaks in it for 30 minutes and placed right on the grill. You could bake the tofu with the sauce too I guess. This sauce is also mmmmm good on veggies, pasta, etc. Experiment!

Cream Craving

I’ve never been a fan of heavy cream sauces. But that’s because before my vegan adventure something like this would have killed me.  Today I accomplished a delicious white wine cream sauce with mushrooms that was rich, creamy, and has no dairy at all!

The secret… cashew cream! I finally did it. And it’s not as complicated as Tal Ronnen made it out to be in his cookbook The Conscious Cook. He says to soak the cashews over night. ugh why would I? That’s the whole reason I never got around to make this in the first place. So I just went for it, and it worked just fine rinsing them a bit and blending right away. Done my way, we’re looking at a time span of about 15-20 minutes to make this meal, compared to hours!

I just made enough cashew cream for this dish, but you could make more and store it in the fridge. It’s just whole raw cashews and water blended together – strained, if you don’t want little bits in it. Making dinner my way in the kitchen means I didn’t measure anything… sorry!

White Wine Mushroom Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
Whole Raw Cashews & cold water
Olive Oil
Onion
Garlic
Portobello & Cremini Mushrooms
Dry White Wine
Vegetable Stock
Fresh Basil & Parsley
Baby Spinach (optional)
Salt & Pepper

I used about 1 cup of whole cashews, and enough water in the blender so the cashews are just covered. Blend until smooth. Saute chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil until soft. Add some salt and pepper, and mushrooms and cook uncovered until all the water is absorbed. Then add some basil, parsley, white wine and some veggie stock – about 3:1 wine to stock. Simmer until reduced. Have your pasta boiling at this point. Stir in the cashew cream and baby spinach, allowing it to wilt. The cream might start to thicken, so I just added a bit more wine to thin it out. Toss with your cooked pasta and top with more fresh basil, parsley, and fresh pepper to serve.

mac & cheeze V 2.0

Did you see my recent post about making a vegan mac & cheeze? OK, well I tried another recipe, just for fun. It’s from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. A blog I am frequenting now and highly recommend. The first recipe I tried was actually called a vegan alfredo sauce and while I originally disagreed, I take it back. This second version of mac & cheeze from FatFree Vegan Kitchen is more like real mac & cheese. It’s even yellow like KD… but WAAAAY better! It’s also a very smooth and creamy sauce. The first recipe from VeganYumYum had raw cashews in it that didn’t quite blend smooth in my meager blender. While it was still yummy and I’ll probably use that sauce again, I like how this one has no chunky bits. So definitely give it a whirl. It’s tasty and cheezy!

Vegan Bolognese

This isn’t the hardest thing in the world to make, but the reason it deserves a post is because my carnivorous boyfriend thought it was DELICIOUS! And there’s NO meat in this sauce. I also used brown rice pasta, which I have mentioned before, should be your new best friend. It’s just as satisfying in taste and texture as white pasta, but you won’t have all the bad side effects of white refined pasta. I will never go back! Make this to impress your meat loving friends, or if you’re cutting back the meat, try this as one of your vegan/vegetarian meals of the week.

Ingredients:

1 pkg Yves Italian Veggie Ground Round
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped spanish onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 cup chopped portobello mushroom
1 cup dry red wine (or half wine / half veggie stock)
S&P, oregano, basil, red chili flakes, parsley to your liking
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes

If you can, process the celery, carrot, onion and garlic in a food processor so its finely chopped. Heat some olive oil in a sauce pan and add in this mixture. Cook down until it’s soft. You can add salt and pepper at each stage of cooking this sauce – as you’ll probably be tasting it throughout! Add the wine/stock and allow it to simmer until its mostly evaporated, at this stage you can add in the herbs/chili flakes that you want. Next add in the chopped mushrooms, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes. Keep simmering, and you’ll be able to tell when this is nearly done. In the last 5 minutes of cooking crumble in the ground round and combine. More S&P to taste and serve with your favorite noodles. It’s always best to combine  your noodles with sauce in the pot, ensuring each bite is flavorful and for presentation you can put another dollop of sauce on top.

Impress Your Friends…It’s Easy!

Yam or Sweet Potato Fries are nothing new. But as long as you’re not cooking for a Foodie or fellow Food Blogger, you can apparently impress your guests with this simple appie!

Mine were impressed that I made my own and didn’t go buy the bag of frozen McCain’s sweet potato fries! Ewww.

On my path to try and become vegan I made a tasty garlic mayo dipping sauce with Vegenaise. An amazing creation. But don’t eat it plain…it mos def needs to be spiced up, but the consistency and purpose is the same as mayo (which I find rather disgusting knowing its eggs and oil). I just added minced garlic, lemon juice, coriander, and S&P. Toss your cut sweet potato fries in canola oil, cumin, paprika, S&P and bake at 425 F until crisp and golden.